Monze stocks up on fuel

Government has expressed happiness that the fuel shortages that hit Monze and other parts of Southern Province has since been addressed.

Speaking during a brief tour of filling stations in the district to check on the fuel situation, Minister of Energy Mathews Nkhuwa was pleased to note that the fuel shortage has been addressed and that all districts in the province are with adequate fuel.

Mr Nkhuwa noted that the government was deeply concerned with the fuel shortages that hit most parts of the country and disclosed that remedial measures have since been put in place to ensure uninterrupted and constant fuel supply.

Mr. Nkhuwa also appealed to Monze District Commissioner to alert the government of any looming fuel shortages by constocked stantly engaging owners of all the three filling stations in the district.

“It is nice to hear that there are no more fuel shortages here. Southern Province was hard hit by fuel shortages and that is why we took a tour to ascertain what was happening and we are happy that the challenge of fuel shortages is now over in the province,” said Mr. Nkhuwa.

“I want to appeal to you District Commissioner to be proactive to engage these owners of these filling stations from time to time and equally important actively coordinate with my office to avert another fuel shortage which affects economic activities,” he added.

Mr. Nkhuwa pledged the government support to private sector engaged in the construction or exploration of energy such the Kalahari geothermal power plant under exploration at a cost of about K90 million in the Lochnivar National Park Monze.

The minister noted that geothermal energy is stable power unlike wind or solar energy and that the government desires to see the successful completion of the plant expected to generate 15 Megawatts once operational soon.

He also said the government would support all cascading geothermal energy uses such as the proposed industrial park that would use energy from the plant once operational.

And Monze District Commissioner Munachoongo Muleya has confirmed a stable flow of fuel at most filling stations.

And Kobil filling station manager David Musonda has appealed to the government to allow for the construction of more filling stations to meet the growing demand for fuel in the District.

He said the two existing filling stations were old and had inadequate capacity of less than 200,000 litres to meet the demand and that such poses a challenge to have buffer stocks in case of prolonged fuel shortages.

Monze District experienced a shortage of both diesel and petrol for close to a week forcing some motorists to fetch the commodity on the black market at exploitative prices.